Chapter 15 The Rise of Christianity

During the reign of Emperor Augustus, something important happened—but at the time, almost nobody noticed

Long ago, a man named Jesus of Nazareth was born Jesus was a Jewish man who later became an important teacher He walked among crowds of people teaching People said that he worked miracles They said he changed water into wine and walked on the water They said he cured the sick, and even brought dead people back to life

Jesus attracted followers But he also attracted the attention of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate [PonCHUS PIE-let] Pilate had heard that Jesus called himself “the king of the Jews ” He did not like the sound of that The Jews of Palestine were subjects of the Roman Emperor There was no room for a “king” and a governor in Rome

Pilate had Jesus arrested He put Jesus on trial and sentenced him to death

Even though Jesus died, a group of his followers believed Jesus was a divine being—the son of God They believed he had been sent to Earth by God They believed that after his death, he was taken up to heaven by God

The followers of Jesus were called Christians They believed Jesus was sent by God to save people They began sharing the story of Jesus with anyone who would listen Lots of people thought they were crazy But some people listened The Christian religion began to grow

One man did more than anyone else to spread the Christian religion His name was Paul and he was a Roman citizen He traveled all around, spreading the religion of Jesus Eventually Paul was put to death, like Jesus, but not before he had set up Christian churches all around the Roman Empire

At first, the Roman emperors paid no attention to this new religion Later, they started to pay attention, but only because they did not approve of the Christians

Remember: the Romans worshipped many gods Everyone in the Roman Empire was expected to worship gods like Jupiter, Juno, and Mars The Romans believed that these gods protected the state They believed people should honor them

That was a problem for the Christians They believed that there was only one God They believed it was wrong to worship the Roman gods

So, for many years, the Roman emperors treated Christians as enemies of Rome They did what they could to get rid of the Christians They threw some of them in jail They had others put to death But the Christians did not give up their faith They kept on believing and they kept on preaching

Christians were treated as enemies of Rome.

The man who ended the long war between Rome and Christianity was the Emperor Constantine He became Emperor about three hundred years after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth By that time, there were a lot of Christians In fact, Constantine’s own mother became a Christian Constantine became a Christian as well

When Constantine became a Christian, everything changed For hundreds of years, the Roman emperors had punished the Christians Now with Constantine, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire